paris to bordeaux...tuesday 23/09/2008

so ben and i had just about the worst day of our lives on tuesday, as it was (drumroll, please) MOVING DAY!!! as in, moving ALL our much needed crap from the suburbs of Paris to somewhere in Bordeaux. what normally took us 15 minutes to walk from Becky and Alex's house to the train station took an hour, after much huffing, puffing, lugging, maneuvering, unsuccessful yet desparate searches for a cab, remaneuvering, and possibly an explitive or two....(in french, of course) :)anyways, we finally made it "la gare"--train station.

that was only the beginning. altho it flashed thru my mind that i should re-check our tix for which train station we were leaving Paris from to Bordeaux, i didn't, and about halfway to Paris i realize i have put us on the route to the wrong gare...ben, being accustomed to me putting him on the wrong train in Paris, was not too frazzled, and we figured out how to maneuvere, once again, ourselves into getting to the right place.....if only we could get there on time!!

i forgot to mention the stairs....and you remember of course that we have way more luggage than is humanely possible to haul (where's a good pack mule when you need one?...lindsay?) :) well, 2 men at 2 different times helped us haul our luggage either up the stairs and later down them. well, here we are, frantically trying to reroute ourselves to the CORRECT gare so we don't blow 44 euros by missing our train, and the first man appears and volunteers his help and advice....what? a frenchman going OUT OF HIS WAY...TWICE...for some foreigners? well, it turns out he's Algerian, but he has really made me believe in guardian angels. he not only calls his wife at home who's at a computer to find us the best connections to take to our station, but GOES WITH US, helping us haul our insane amount of "necessities."

i don't know if i've done a good enuf job describing the blood, sweat, and tears that went into us each carrying a pack, and "carryon" or "manpurse" if you will, and rolling 1-2 suitcases each (one of which the handle was broken) and a guitar, but it was pure misery. this man, who's name we never got, accompagnied us thru 2 large gares as we made connections and excused our way thru masses of people while trying not to knock anyone out.....he was a pure God-send. we would not have made it out alive!!

btw...we took a cab from Bordeaux to where we were staying....best 20 euros we ever spent!